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Chapter Three
BEGINNING OF ART AND ARCHITECTURAL
HISTROY IN INDIA ( bhuddhist a hindu period )
Humanity took a long time in its trial and error method in comming
to the stage of constructing the houses which can be called as the
sheltered idea of man. The sheltered idea made him settle in a fixed
place.
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE
Indian history of art and architecture primarily deals with religious
buildings and allied things for these, rather than secular buildings.
As we understand from the existing historical remains of different
buildings from different eras, that the percentage of religious
architecture is 80% while the other types remained between rest
20%. Study of all styles of temples is merely the vast topic meant
of volumes of books. The important features of the temple
architecture are mainly disscussed in this dissertation.
THE MONUMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE ANCIENT
Ancient monumental edifices all over the world have always been
structured on the principle of being built over a wide base with the
superstructure decreasing gradually in size towards an apex of sorts.
To attain height, monumentality and structural stability, with
Page 50
essentially inelastic materials like stone and brick, this was the
soundest way of assuring a long life for the edifice. A solid
monument of this nature creates virtually no lateral forces unlike,
say, a cubic mass that would need to be contained within well
reinforced and massive walls of mortar jointed masonry. Rather the
load of the gradually tapering structure acts only downwards and as
long the building material of the lowest course is not crushed by its
own weight, structural immortality is virtually inherent in the
design. The actual form that emerged from this sound principle,
acquired various shapes in different regions, influenced as it was by
local geographical, geological, climatic, social and religious
reasons.
It is also no wonder then that though the houses and palaces of
ancient times have vanished, buildings like the pyramids of the
Egyptian’s, Aztecs and Assyrians and the stupas of the Buddhists
are still extant. The builders of Egypt for their memorials had
crystallized the shape of the familiar sand dunes of the desert into
great pyramids or, may be, attempted to symbolize the rays of the
sun from horizon to horizon, in its profile. The Assyrian cut
stepped terraces into the sides of the pyramid to create the famous
Ziggaruts more suited probably to the performance of their sacred
rituals. Even in far away Mexico, the Aztecs built their temples,
Page 51
over piles of receding masonry, designed virtually like monumental
staircases to the heavens above. The one structural principle
common to the Egyptian, the Assyrian and Aztoc builder though is,
that he always started from a broad base tapering to a narrow apex.
Just as the ancient craftsman the world over had built his
monumental edifices over a plan that was an elementary geometric
profile, the evident choice open to the Buddhist architect was either
a square or a circle, the two purest and most perfect of geometric
forms. He chose the circle; to him not only did it symbolize the
Buddhist “wheel of law” but was also an ideal focus for performing
the Buddhist ritual of endless circumambulation of a sacred object.
Moreover, its connotations were significantly contrary to the square
which had formed the basis of the plans of the Vedic altars of
sacrifice.1
THE BUDDHIST STUPA
The irregular humble mound of rubble that had been piled over by
the reverent worshippers over relics, and ancient treasures to mark
a sacred site, was now transformed by the royal builders into a
hemispherical brick paved tumuli, the plan, elevation, section and
total form of which were all derived from the circle. The embryo of
the most powerful architectural form of Buddhism, the famous
1. Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.27-32 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 52
Stupa, thus emerged for the first time under the architectural
patronage of Asoka.*
Asoka, however, seems to have been fully aware of the transitory
nature of such mud and brick stupas, however elaborately
decorated. Since his proclaimed aim was to ensure a “long
endurance of the good law,” he inevitably started “thinking in
stone.” In his meticulously planned operation, not unlike a modern
advertising campaign for the spread of Buddhism, he was quick to
use the well tried techniques of the Persian emperor Darius.
Messages of Buddha, in the Pali text, were carved into tablets of
stone and installed at various strategic locations. The success of his
campaign can be gauged by the fact that a number of these
effectively affirm the gospel of the Buddha to his followers as much
as 2,000 years after they were erected.’
THE STAMBHAS
To these stele’s Asoka also added his own special innovation.
Inspired undoubtedly by the wooden totem poles of the primitive
tribes, he ordered the inscriptions carved on columns of stone
2,3 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist & Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist & Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History & Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page S3
instead of mere slabs and these were set up at regular intervals
along roads leading to places of Buddhist pilgrimage. The Indian
stone mason had learnt his lesson well from the Persian “gurus,” In
what may be called his first test in the crafting of stone, he carried
out the emperor’s commands with great sculptural and technological
ingenuity. Columns, some 40 feet (12 metres) in length and
weighing as much as 50 tones, were carved out from a single block
of sandstone, won out of the now famous quarry at Chunnar, in
modern Bihar. These massive pillars were then carried, unbroken
and intact to sites over hundreds of miles away. The means of
transport employed fro this amazing feat are still not clear.
Presumably, the operation involved building specially designed,
huge bullock-drawn timber carts, and even flat barges for floating
down the well tried highways of trade - the numerous Indian rivers.
The tapering shaft of the column, once it had reached its
destination, was painstakingly varnished and polished to give it a
unique and unbelievable mirror-like luster; a fantastic achievement
indeed, with a sedimentary rock like sandstone. The column, it
would appear, sometimes rose straight out of the ground without
any base, like the trunk of a tree, or at some places had a circular
Pag* 54
brick platform at its base. At the top was mounted a large
sculptured figure of an animal.4
One of these, the famous sculpture of the four-lions has acquired
great popularity since being adopted as the national emblem of
modern India. The sculpture executed in a style reminiscent of
Persian design, weighing five tonnes and about seven feet in height,
was effectively joined to the pillar by a 2 feet (60 cm.) long
cylindrical copper dowel, toned accurately into the shaft and
sculpture without use of any cementing material. A magnificent,
large as life lion sitting high in the air (as at Lauriya Nandgarh in
Bihar) proclaiming the dharma to the world, must indeed have been
a wondrous sight to the Buddhist pilgrims of the second century
B.C.5
THE AJIVIKAS AND CAVE ARCHITECTURE
Though Asoka zealously propagated Buddhism virtually as the state
religion, he was not entirely intolerant of other sects. The Ajivika
tribes, he ordered the inscriptions carved on columns of stone
4,5 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 55
ascetics were another of his beneficiaries. He ordered sanctuaries,
to suit their needs, to be built at the cost of the state. As if to prove
the basic tenets of their thinking, that “all change and movement
were illusionary" and the “world in reality was eternally and
immovably at rest" the Ajivikas discarded the conventional timber
and brick structures of the materially engrossed oppidian. They
chose instead to carve out habitable caves out of the “eternally
immovable" hill sides, for their sanctuaries. Also in choosing this
novel form of architecture, they intuitively immortalized the
traditional dwelling of the Indian sage, who as a mark of the
rebellion from the materialistic creed of the city dweller, had for
years sought refuge to meditate in nature caves in eremitical
hillsides. Unknowingly, the Ajivikas had pioneered an art form, that
was to flower into some of the most unique works of Indian
architecture-*
In the shaping of these caves, the builders with chisels and hammers
as their main tools, were practicing more the craft of sculpture than
of architecture. They were unhindered by the bother of calculating
spans, adequate supports and checking the strength of materials. If
tribes, he ordered the inscriptions carved on columns of stone
6 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Pag* 56
they had really chosen to exercise their freedom and thrown to the
wind all the normal restraints of traditional building forms, they
could well have produced a hundred bizarre and exotic shapes.
However, an inherent love, or weakness if you will, for the familiar,
made them reproduce in rock, almost exact copies of existing
structures in wood and thatch. 7
This curious and novel adaptation of the carpenter’s art to the stone
carvers, however, produced its own inimitable results, that can be
seen in some seven caves of the Ajivikas in the hills of Barbara and
nearby Nagrajuni, north of modern Bhubaneswar in Orissa. Of
these, the cave popularly known as Lomas Rishi is surely the
crowning glory. Its interior circular cell 19 feet (6 metres) in
diameter has a hemispherical domed roof and is approached through
a 33 feet (10 metres) long tunnel-like hall. The barrel-vaulted
rectangular thatch hut and the beehive roofed shrine, crafted by the
Aryan carpenter and to be found in any of the innumerable Indian
villages, had thus been perpetuated in the form of a cave. The
shape of the entrance arch on the hill-side is the familiar gable, end
of the same rural-dwelling, described earlier. The minutest tribes,
he ordered the inscriptions carved on columns of stone
7 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 57
structural details of the original hut have been faithfully reproduced
in the Lomas Rishi. The rock cutters however lifted this work
beyond mere plagiarism by deftly introducing a beautifully
sculptured semi-circular panel at the crown of the arch depicting
two rows of elephants walking towards a stupa. Such a panel could
neither have been lifted nor inspired by any timber structure; only a
skilled stone carver could have conceived of it and created it. This
combination of traditional building forms and applied sculpture
obviously appealed immensely to the flowering genius of the Indian
artist. It became, as we shall see, the unique essence of all Buddhist
and Hindu architecture in India, for centuries to come.*
THE CHAITYAS
In the process of maturing into a religion, Buddism borrowed little
from the sacrificial rites of the Brahmins; rather its simple ritual
was inspired by the popular cult of the “Chaityas” (from the
Sanskrit chita - a pyre) or “sacred spots”. The traditional chaitya
was a grove of trees in the middle of which small tumulii of earth
tribes, he ordered the inscriptions carved on columns of stone
8 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 58
had been built up over the ashes of the tribal chiefs. The rural folk
found these chaityas, located on the outskirts of their villages, less
expensive and more convenient to worship than the great Aryan
gods. The Buddhist monks merely transferred the attention of their
followers, from these to stupas that carried in them, ashes or relics
of the Buddha.
With the growth of a large lay following and the assured patronage
of the elite and rich mercantile classes, communities of Buddhist
monks, instead of wandering around as aim begging mendicants,
began settling down around such chaityas. The Chaityas thus grew
into small monasteries and the cult of the chaitya became the
touchstone of Buddhist ritual and worship. By the time of Asoka’s
death, the Indian country-side was probably dotted by a number of
such Buddhist settlements.*
These establishments, to begin with, were of a very modest nature,
much like the wayside village shrine of today. The stupa at best was
a white-washed mound, probably decorated with festoons and
prayer flags. A protective wooden fence around the stupa, apart
tribes, he ordered the inscriptions carved on columns of stone
9 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist & Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History & Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 59
from symbolizing the sacred nature of the enclosed area,
demarcated a circumambulatory path along which monks would walk
around the stupa, chanting Buddhist “slokas" or holy scriptures.
Near the stupa were probably some simple thatch huts for the
resident monks. By the very temporary nature of their construction,
none of these, settlements have survived to this date. Curiously
enough, the more permanent and enduring architectural
masterpieces of the Buddhists were destined to be constructed after
the patronizing umbrella of the Mauryan dynasty vanished.1*
THE GROWTH OF SANCHI
In such an intimidating atmosphere, the orders of Buddhist monks
began to retire from the centers of urban power. They however,
continued to enjoy the patronage of the wealthy and sophisticated
mercantile class that had little to gain by servility to the rising
powers of resurgent Brahminism, since their place in society was
virtually preordained. Funds continued to pour in to help the order
of Buddhist monks to build their new monasteries in more peaceful
tribes, he ordered the inscriptions carved on columns of stone
10 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 60
and solitary environments. The largest and most famous of these
blossomed upon a hill top in Sanchi (near modern Bhopal) close to
Vidisha, the new centre of Shunga power. Sanchi had already been
marked as a sacred spot when a semi-circular brick mound some 70
feet (21.3 metres) in diameter had been built here, as a part of
Asoka’s historic architectural campaign. The stupa was now
enlarged to double its size by building another stone-faced mound,
increasing the diameter of the original to 120 feet (36.3 metres) and
its height to 54 feet (16.4 metres). Sixteen feet high from the
ground level of the Stupa the builders created an elevated
Pradakshina Path perhaps reserved for the clergy, the traditional
one at ground level being open to the common pilgrim. The crown
of the hemispherical mound was flattened out to make place for
circular platform from the middle of which rose a three tiered stone
umbrella, set inside a square enclosure, marked out by a low stone
fence.11
THE STONE VEDIKA
In the process of carrying out the enlargement of the stupa, the
traditional timber fence surrounding the original stupa had to be
pulled down. It was now replaced by a massive and austere railing,
H Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist & Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 61
fabricated entirely out of stone. In assembling together this railing
the craftsmen of India were taking yet another decisive step towards
the proficient use of stone as a comprehensive building medium.
They were already postmasters in the sculpting and polishing of
stone and had successfully installed massive Asokan pillars all over
India. Octagonal stone pillars 18 inch (45 cm) in diameter and 9
feet (2.7 metres) high were planted along the circular periphery at a
distance of about 2 feet (60 cm) from each other. The space
between each pair was spanned by three, 2 feet (60 cm) deep, lens
shaped horizontals, which were meticulously tenoned into
corresponding mortises cut in the pillars. The railing was topped by
an appropriately massive stone coping, giving in a total height of 11
feet (3.3 metres). It is obvious that the shape and form of the
security oriented timber flrence around the Aryan village, a
prototype of which had surrounded the early'Buddhist stupa, had
over the centuries also acquired sacred and magical virtues. Thus,
in the entire process of erecting the sacrosanct Vedika in stone, the
craftsman had diligently reapplied the structural techniques of the
Aryan carpenter so as not to tamper with the physiognomy of the
timber original.12
12 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist & Hindu) pp.33-37
Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist & Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan. The History & Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 62
THE BUDDHIST TORANA
The work on the extensions and refurbishing of the stupa went on
for almost a 100 years. The imagination, religious zeal and vigor of
the builder as well as the coffers of the mercantile patronage,
however seemed inexhaustible. The designers were soon devising
schemes to add new dimensions to the architectural ensemble. The
wondrous pathway around the stupa was like a forbidding wall from
outside. A touch of invitation was lacking. What more appropriate
than to install gateways to match the magnificence of the Vedika.
Elaborating once again on traditional village forms, the rural
bamboo gateway of the Aryan village was transformed by the
Buddhist builders into a great 34 feet (10.3 metres) high Toran
(from Sanskrit Tor-a pass). Four such gateways were installed at
cardinal points of the railing. The techniques of stone masonry
employed in constructing the tornas were no doubt as primitive as
those in erecting the railing. Nevertheless, after erecting the two
stone uprights the stone mason realized the futility of cutting
mortises and making tenons in stone. Instead for the first time, he
applied the rationale of building with stone and merely spanned the
twenty feet between the verticals with curved stone beams resting
Arm and square and sailing over on either side of the uprights. The
horizontal spaces between the beams were then filled in with
vertical uprights to create a sort of stone trellis, the “jharokas” of
Page 63
which were adorned with sculpture. The surfaces of the two pillars
as well as the cross beams along the top received a generous
measure of the carvers chisel and were covered with finely wrought
sculpture, rich in the symbolism and imagery of Buddhist lore. It is
in fact the sensuous sculpture on these gateways that has provided
the Indian historian with an invaluable visual record of the myths,
legends and social mores of the day.13
SYMBOLISM AND STRUCTURAL FUNCTION
The final tectonic composition comprising the dome of the Stupa
(or the Anda) the square railing at the crown (or the Harmika) and
the three tier umbrella (or chatra) have in course of time been
invested with various elaborate geomantic, theological and
philosophical meanings. The hemisphere is the "Dome of Heaven”
or “the fixed cosmic structure”, the Harmika “Heaven of the 33
gods,” the umbrella “the world axis”. The plan of the pradakshina-
path at the ground level is read to be a Swastika and pregnant with
the symbolism of ancient solar cults. The structural reason for the
development of such forms are however, much more pertinent. The
hemispherical stupa, as explained earlier, was a geometric
13 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist & Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist & Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 64
crystallization of the rudimentary mound of earth eminently suitable
for the ritual of endless circumambulation. The Harmika and
Chatra, are a stylized visual depiction of the famous Bodhi tree
surrounded by the sacred Vedika-or railing. The Swastika is most
likely the fortuitous result of solving a planning problem. The
torana, erected after the railing was completed, was planted some
feet away from the opening in the railings, so as to ensure privacy
for the pilgrim circumbulating the Pradkshina, a planning principle,
effectively employed later in the entrance gateways to fortresses for
ensuring security. Seen purely in plan, the metaphysical observer
would of course read the Swastika in its ensuring outlines.14
THE BUDDHIST VIHARA
An ensemble as glorious as the great stupa inevitably led to the
growth of other ancillaries. Buildings were needed to house the
resident monks. In contrast to the richly sculptured gateways of the
stupas, the places of residence in their bareness, reflect rather the
inherent austerity of monastic life. These were built as a series of
individual cells or dormitories enclosing a rectangular or square
14 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.33-37
Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7-142
Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 65
open-to-sky court. The open court served ell the community
facilities, at places including a well for drinking water. The cells,
on the other hand, afforded the monks sufficient privacy for the
practice of meditation. As one can see the basic idea was only an
enlargement of the traditional concept of the “house around a
courtyard” harking back to the days of the Indus Valley civilization.
In due course, these came to be known as “Viharas”. Since they
were built in one or more stories, in timber frame and brick walls,
only the foundations of these at Sanchi have survived the
superstructure having vanished soon after the monasteries were
deserted.15
CHAITYA HALLS
The great stupa, though a magnificent structure, had its limitation.
It was essentially an open air edifice incapable of being used in
inclement weather. The need was felt, therefore, for an enclosed
hall in which a miniature stupa (so far the only acceptable symbol
of Buddhist veneration) could be conveniently worshipped the year
round. The simplest solution was to place the stupa at the end of a
15 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist & Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist & Hindu Period) pp. 7*142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 66
long rectangular hall. Soon, however, the designers realized that
the circular stupa sat rather incongruously within its
rectangular enclosure. The walls directly behind the stupa were then
made semicircular to echo the profile of the stupa.15
The path for the ritual of circumambulation around the stupa was
also thus clearly defined. The roof of such a structure was the
familiar barrel vault in timber, covered with tile and supported on
brick walls framed by timber pillars. The entire composition was
built on a high plinth enclosed by the inevitable sacred railing. The
nascent form of the famous apsidal ended halls of worship,
essentially like Roman bascilicas in plan, thus emerged in the so
called Temple No. 40 of Sanchi; a form that was to captivate the
obsessions of the Buddhist builder, though in another medium, and
result in the famous Chaitya caves at Ajanta, Ellora and Karle.17
15,17 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7*142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 67
ART & ARCHITECTURE
Formation of the Traditional Temple Styles
The Indian Silpasastras recognize three main styles of temples,
known as the Nagara, the Dravida and the Vesara. The descriptions
given of them are, however, vague and inadequate, and it is not
possible at the present stage of our knowledge to equate the
descriptions of the texts with any of the extant examples of Indian
temple architecture. The term Dravida indicates that the names were
primarily geographical. Various texts also contain passages
mentioning the respective regions in which the different styles were
current, though some of the texts maintain that all the styles may be
found in all the regions. All the available texts are agreed on the
point that the Nagara style was prevalent in the region between the
Himalayas and the Vindhyas. The Dravida country is well known,
and the texts rightly confine the Dravida style to that part of the
country lying between the river Krishna and cape Kanyakumari. The
Nagara and Dravida styles can thus be explained with reference to
Northern India and the Dravida country respectively, and the
characteristic form and features of each easily determined. Some of
the texts ascribe the Vesara style to the country between the
Vindhyas and the river Krishna. In this region, or more properly in
the region for some time under the royal dynasty of the Chalukyas,
a separate style of temple architecture may be recognized - a style
known to the archaeologists as the “Chalukyan”. This style,
Page 68
however, is a hybrid one, borrowing elements and features both
from the Nagara and the Dravida styles, and does not become
clearly distinguished before the eleventh century A.D.1*
They are always distinguished in the texts by their shapes. As for
example, all the texts lay down that a Nagara temple is
quadrangular all over, i.e. from the base to the stupi. But this
feature of the plan is so very general and common that it is difficult
to consider it as a sure and distinctive cognizance of a particular
style of temple. The octagonal and circular shapes, respectively, of
the Dravida and the Vesara styles are also too inadequate to be
regarded as sure and distinguishing marks for the styles concerned.
Under the circumstances, one has to depend on the evidence of
extant monuments for a knowledge of the particular form and
features of any one of the styles mentioned in the Silpasastras.19
A study of the temples of Northern India reveals two distinct
features - one in planning and the other in elevation. In plan the
temple is always a square with a number of graduated projections in
the middle of each side. These projections give it a cruciform shape
18,19 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist & Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist & Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History & Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 69
with a number of re-entrant angles on each side. In elevation it
exhibits a tower (sikhara), gradually inclining inwards in a convex
curve. The projections in the plan are also carried upwards to the
top of the sikhara, and thus there is a strong emphasis on vertical
lines in elevation. On account of this and the prominence of the
vigorous and unbroken outline of the tower, it is also known as the
rekha sikhara. Widely distributed over a greater part of India, the
Nagara style, as could be expected, exhibits distinct varieties and
ramifications in different localities, conditioned by the different
lines of evolution and elaboration that each locality chose for itself.
The cruciform plan and the curvilinear tower are, however, common
to every mediaeval temple of Northern India, wherever it is situated
and whatever its local stamp might be. In spite of elaboration’s and
modifications in different localities, these two fundamental features
are always present in a North Indian temple, and may be considered
as distinctive characteristics of the Nagara style of temple
architecture. Each of the projections on each face of the square
plan leaves out a small portion at either corner, and may be
considered as distinctive characteristics of the Nagara style of
temple architecture. Each of the projections on each face of the
square plan leaves out a small portion at either corner, and thus are
formed a number of projecting angles (asras) and facets (known as
rathakas in Sanskrit and rathas in the canonical texts of Orissa). In
this connection it should be observed that some of the texts
Page 70
describe a Nagara temple both as chaturasra (quadrangular) and as
ayatasra. The latter terms has been interpreted as rectangular.
The fundamental characteristics of a Nagara temple are, as noted
above, the cruciform plan and the curvilinear sikhara; and the
simplest archetype of this style may be found in a group of shrines
that were in existence in the sixth century A.D.20
The Dravida style was current in the south, evidently in the Dravida
country, roughly the country between the river Krishna and
Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin). The texts merely lay down that a
Dravida prasada should be octagonal (some say hexagonal) from the
neck to the top, or, as one or two texts would enjoin, from the base
to the top. But such descriptions are too vague and hardly fit the
facts.
The outstanding and common characteristic of the temples of the
Dravida country is the pyramidal elevation of the tower (vimana,)
which consists of a multiplication of storey after storey, each a
replica of the sanctum cella and slightly reduced in extent than the
one below, ending in a domical member, technically known as the
stupi or stupika, as the crowning element. This storeyed
20 Sstish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 71
arrangement of the tower in gradually receding stages may,
therefore, be regarded as a distinct individuality of the Dravida
style of temple, though in later phases of its history the stages
become more and more compressed, so much so that they are
almost hidden under a profusion of details which become
characteristic of the subsequent evolution of the style. In plan the
Dravida temple presents an inner square chamber as the sanctum
cella within a bigger square enclosure, covered and roofed over,
serving as the pradakshna (circumambulatory passage). The division
of the external walls into niches by pilasters is also a characteristic
element of South Indian temples. The convex roll cornice, with
chaitya-window motifs, demarcating each of the stages, and the
little pavilions around the upper storeys may also be regarded as
peculiar features of the style. The pillared halls and corridors and
the immense gopurams (gateways) are invariably associated with
temples that are considerably late, and may be left out of the
present discussion. 21
21 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist & Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist & Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People
Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 72
Many of the distinctive elements of what came to be known as the
Dravida temple style may be found in the second group of Gupta
tomplcs, mentioned above, which exhibits a building consisting of
an inner sanctum with a covered pradakshina forming a bigger
square around. The roof is flat, and in several examples (the Parvati
temple at Nachna Kuthara, the Lad Khan, the Kont Gudi, and the
Meguti temples at Aihole, etc.) we find an upper storey, which
being placed above the inner sanctum cella is necessarily set back.
These storeyed pavilions, shown in relief, on the Audumbara coins
from the Kangra valley of about the first century A.D.
The plan of the inner sanctum with a cloistered gallery around is a
special characteristic common to this type of Gupta temples and a
temple of the Dravida style. Again, the scheme of the division of
the walls of the Dravida temple by pilasters and niches may have its
origin in the peculiar device of enclosing the pradakshina square
with thin slabs of stone socketted to pilasters placed at intervals, as
we have in the Lad Khan at Aihole. In the Jain temple of Meguti
such a decorative scheme of the exterior walls becomes clearly
established. The Lad Khan as well as the Meguti further show the
use of the roll cornice carved with well-shaped chaitya arches - an
Page 73
essential motif that came to be regarded as a distinguishing mark of
the Dravida style of temples.12
The archetypes of what came to be known as the Dravida style had
originally nothing to do with the Dravida country, and appear first
in the Deccan and Central India, occasionally also in Northern
India. Even in the seventh century A.D. the sikhara, archetype of
the Nagara style, and the storeyed forms occur side by side at
Aihole, Pattadakal, and Badami. The geographical delimitation of
the two styles is thus yet to come.
NAGARA STYLE
The Nagara style of temple architecture had a long and varied
history. Temples, with distinctive characteristics of the style as
mentioned above, are found to be widely distributed over the
greater part of India. According to the Silpasastras the geographical
extent of the Nagara style coincied with Northern India, i.e. the
region between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas, and Fergusson’s
nomenclature, the Aryavarta style, is nearly approximate in this
22 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist & Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History & Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 74
connection. Actually, however, the style transcends the canonical
limit far to the south, and temples belonging to the style may be
seen from the Himalayas in the north to the Bijapur District in the
south, from the Punjab in the west to Bengal in the east. With such
a vast geographical extent it is natural that there are local variations
and ramifications in the formal development of the style in the
different regions, although such local developments do not alter
materially its basic characteristics. Such variations are caused by
local conditions, by different directions in development, as well as
by assimilation of extraneous trends wherever these made
themselves felt. On account of such wide distribution and varied
developments, a consecutive historical treatment of the style is not
possible, except on a regional basis. The different phases of the
Nagara style will, therefore, be dealt with geographically.23
Orissa - Temples Styles ( Nagra Stylization )
Of all the regional developments of the Nagara style that of Orissa
is one of the most remarkable. From the seventh to the thirteenth
century A.D. innumerable temples were erected in Orissa, and it has
23 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 75
been truly observed that “there are perhaps more temples now in
Orissa than in all the rest of Hindustan put together”. The activity
centered round the sacred city of Bhuvanesvara (Bhuvaneswar), a
temple town which alone contains hundreds of temples, large and
small, in various stages of preservation. Circumscribed within this
area, these temples form, to quote Fergusson, "one of the most
compact and homogeneous architectural groups in India.” This
prolific and sustained architectural activity was due in a large
measure to the patronage of the different dynasties of kings, and
the preservation of so many fine examples, to the comparative
immunity of the country from Muslim inroads till a late period.
The Orissan group may be said to represent, to some extent, a pure
form of the original Nagara style. Its graceful proportions, solemn
and unbroken outline, and elegant design and decorative scheme
enhance the beauty of the original archetype, but without any loss
of balance, strength, or stability. Not only historically, but
architectonically too, it is the most interesting and instructive series
of all the temple forms of the Nagara style, and it is only natural
and logical that a study of the development of the style should
begin with Orissa.24
24 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist & Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist & Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History & Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 76
The earliest temple in Orissa, like the older type of the Gupta
period, is a single building consisting of a square sanctum, topped
by a curvilinear tower, with one buttress-like projection in the
middle of each face. The typical Orissan temple, however, has, in
addition, the porch hall in front distinguished by a pyramidal roof
(known locally as mukha-mandapa or jagamohana). In the early
temples the porch hall appears to have been absent. In the
Parasuramesvara temple at Bhuvanesvara there is a rectangular
porch all roofed over by two sloping tiers forming a clerestory; but
this porch, too, appears to have been a later addition. In sub
sequent examples, however, the porch hall became a necessary
concomitant of the Orissan temples.
Each part and each section of the building had its particular name,
and those describing the essential members may, with a certain
amount of appropriateness, be used with reference to the other
temple groups of the Nagara style.
The sanctum and the jagamohana in Orissa may each be divided
along the vertical axis into four distinct sections, namely the pishta
(pedestal or the platform on which the temple stands), the bada (the
cube of the sanctum cella or of the porch hall), the gandi (or the
sikhara, the tower), and the mastaka (or the crowning elements).
Page 77
The pishta does not appear to have been an essential element,
asthere are important examples where it has been found to be
absent. The bada rises perpendicularly straight up to a certain
height and, in case of the rekha deul, merges into the gandi or the
sikhara, which gradually inclines inwards in a convex curve. Usually
there is a section, known as the baranda, demarcating the bada from
the gandi. The gandi of the rekha is further subdivided into a
number of sections, literally known as the Bhumis or planes, by
ribbed elements at the corners. This ribbed element no doubt
represents a sectional amla, known as bhumi-amla for demarcating
the bhumis, and a substitute, in the body of the gandi, of the
enormous spheroid stone, amalaka-sila, that caps the tower. In the
bhadra devi the gandi is composed of a number of phdhas or
horizontal platforms, compressed in height and piled up in the form
of a pyramid, so that they decrease in size from the bottom
upwards. The pidhas may be arranged in two or more sections
(potala). From the top of the gandi in either case (rekha and
bhadra), rise the different crowning elements, which may be
collectively termed as the mastaka. First, there is a recessed portion
known as the beki or the neck (Sanskrit-Kantha); above this is the
amla (Sanskrit amalakn-sila or amalasaraka), which is a flattened
spheroid ribbed at the edges. In the full-fledged bhadra deul an
enormous member, shaped like a bell and sometimes ribbed at the
edges, intervence between the beki and the amla. Next to the amla
Page 78
there is the Khapuri (literally the skull of the head), which is a flat
domical member resembling an unfolded umbrella. Above it is
placed the kalasa or water jar, an important auspicious object in
Indian religion and ritual. The bada as well as the gandi is square in
cross section all through, but the crowning elements are circular,
and above them all appears the dhvaja or ayudha, i.e. the emblem
of the particular deity to whom the temple is consecrated.29
In plan the sanctum as well as the jagamohana is plainly square
inside, but on the exterior the walls exhibit several buttress like
projections in the middle of each face, on account of which the
ground plan assumes what may be called a cruciform shape. Each
such projection leaves out a portion at both the ends, and hence the
plan is also one of projecting and re-entrant angles. Where there is
only one such projection in the middle of each face, the wall is
divided into three vertical section (literally known as rathas or
rathakas), and such a plan is hence known as triratha or composed
of three rathas, the two on either side being on the same plane and
the other being set forward a little. In a similar way there are
pancharatha, saptaratha and navaratha plans, according as there are
25 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist & Hindu Period) pp. 7*142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 79
two, three, or four such projections on each face of the cube of the
bada. The projections on the bada run along the entire height of
the gandi, and the corresponding sections on the body of the latter
are known as the pagas. Usually there runs a narrow depression
between the vertical sections, thus demarcating and accentuating the
projections still more.26
The small but exquisitely decorated Parasuramesvara temple be
regarded as a representative specimen among the early Orissan
temples, and from it should properly begin the story of the
development of Orissan temple architecture. The sanctum is triratha
in plan, but on each face there are two subsidiary niches on either
side of the central niche accommodated in the buttress projection in
the middle. This mode may just be an anticipation of the subsequent
pancharatha plan. The pabhaga or the plinth consists of three
simple mouldings. The jangha is occupied by three niches on each
face, each capped by a tiered superstructure. The baranda or the
section demarcating the bada from the gandi, consists of a narrow
recessed frieze of couples of human figures alternating with chess
board patterned panels. The gandi is low and stunted, and begins to
26 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist A Hindu) pp.33-37 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist A Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History A Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 80
curve inward from the very bottom, thus resulting in a gradual
curvilinear outline. The projection of the central niche is carried up
and forms the raha-paga (i.e. the central paga), while two
intermediate pagar (anurahapagas) are formed on either side as a
result of the continuation, though not in the same alignment, of the
projections of the subsidiary niches on the two sides. At the
outermost or the corner pagas (konaka-pagas) the gandi is divided
into five planes or stages, literally bhumis, by bhumi-amlas. Above
the fifth bhumi there is a flat tier, known as the bisama, also called
the vedi or altar. The gandi is throughout square in cross section,
and the sharp edges at the corners as well as those of the ratha-paga
projections are rigidly maintained. On account of the gradual
inward inclination, the gandi or the tower ends with the vedi in a
much smaller square, and next begins the circular section of the
crowning elements, the enormous amalaka-sila having an appearance
of being supported at each of the four corners on the figure of a
seated lion with two hinder parts, technically known in Orissa as the
dopichha simha. Nothing now remains above the amalaka, but it is
possible that it was topped by a prism-shaped object, which is the
usual finial in the early examples of the Orissan group. The height
of the temple is approximately three times the inside length of the
garbhagriha or the sanctum, and in form and appearance, in plan
and elevation, it has but very little difference with the earlier
examples of the sikhara type noticed elsewhere. Another significant
Page 81
fact is that the bisama, i.e. the tier at which the gandi ends at the
top, in conformity with the early sikhara temples, is square without
the indentations of the paga projections on the body of the gandi.27
The long and rectangular jagamohana, preceding the sanctum, was
very probably a subsequent addition, and the joining between the
two is a rather haphazard piece of work. The rectangular hall is
topped by a sloping roof formed by flat stone slabs having in the
centre a sort of clerestory supported on two rows of three pillars
each in the interior. The Orissan temple is essentially astylar and
the pillars have seldom a place in the composition of the Orissan
temples. The pillars in the Jagamohana accordingly disappear
alongwith the evolution of the usual type of pyramidal jagamohana
characteristic of Orissa. The porch hall is approached by three
doorways, one each on the larger sides and the third in front, the
last being subsequently closed up by a sculptured slab forming a
grilled window. Besides, light is admitted into the interior of the
hall by means of a latticed window of a chess-board pattern in one
of the longer walls. The sculptured decorations of both the
jagamohana and the garbha-griha are in elegant taste and, though
widely separated in time, the Gupta flavour is not yet extinct.
27 Satish Grover, The Architecture of India (Buddhist & Hindu) pp.33-37
Percy Brown, Indian Architecture (Buddhist & Hindu Period) pp. 7-142 Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, The History & Culture Of The Indian People Vol. - V, The Strggle for Empire, pp. 530 - 534, 535/ 609 -622.
Page 82
The temple is not large, the garbha-griha being only 20 feet at its
base, the entire length with the jagamohana, 48 feet, and the height
of the sikhara from the base to the top, only 44 feet. The method of
construction is extremely simple, with stone masonry of large size
set without mortar and kept in position by their weight and balance,
strengthened further by a system of interlocking flanges. Simple
though its construction is, the methods employed in this small
shrine remained in vogue in Orissa, and were followed in the
subsequent period even in raising up such enormous piles of
structures, as the great Lingaraja at Bhuvanesvara and the far-
famed Sun temple at Konark (Konarka).
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